Do you have the faith of demons? It
might be somewhat startling to hear that question asked in church, or just to
hear the words “demon” and “faith” used in the same sentence. We don’t often
give much credence or credibility to demonic activities in our lives; in this
sophisticated, logical, and scientific world many would say we know better than
to believe that kind of stuff. But, the Bible is absolutely clear about the
existence of demons. It was the actions of one such demon, Satan, that led to
our sinful demise.

But, what about faith? Why would we link
our faith to demons? Well, our text is one of the few accounts of the Bible
that speaks to us about what the demons themselves believe. It contains an
absolutely stunning admission of the truth; that even the demons confessed
Jesus as the Son of God. We read from the Gospel of Luke 4:40-44:

When the sun was setting, all those
who had any that were sick with various diseases brought them to Him; and He
laid His hands on every one of them and healed them. 41 And demons also came
out of many, crying out and saying, "You are the Christ, the Son of
God!" And He, rebuking them, did not allow them to speak, for they knew
that He was the Christ. 42 Now when it was day, He departed and went into a
deserted place. And the crowd sought Him and came to Him, and tried to keep Him
from leaving them; 43 but He said to them, "I must preach the kingdom of
God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent."
44 And He was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee.

When we speak of the faith of demons,
let’s get a couple things straight right away. We’re not talking about faith in
demons. That would be obvious idolatry. We’re talking about the beliefs of the
demons concerning the person of Jesus. Although demons, as angelic beings, are
not human; they do have convictions about Jesus and the truth. Therefore, we’re
not talking about faith in the sense of an attachment to Jesus for salvation,
but more of an opinion that they hold to be true. Faith in a lesser sense we
might say.

What we see from these demons is how
even they are brought under the power of Christ. It’s a startling thing, that
Jesus can even make His enemies, even the supernatural ones, bow to His will.
This is startling, but not necessarily surprising, for the Scriptures say
elsewhere: For this reason God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name that
is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow-- of
those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth-- 11 and every tongue
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father
(Philippians 2:9-11). Not everyone will trust the Gospel of Christ, but God
is clear that all will confess it. The truth will not remain concealed forever.
Even the demons bend to Christ when directly confronted by Him.

James wrote in a similar manner, using
the demons as an example for lackadaisical Christians to wake up: You
believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe-- and shudder! 20
Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is
useless? (James 2:19-20) James talked about exactly what we see in our
text, perhaps it was this portion of Luke’s Gospel from which James took his
example. The lesson is this. If even the demons acknowledge Christ’s power, so
much so that they confess it, what do we say about Christ? And so we ask
ourselves the thematic question of our sermon, How does your faith compare
with the demons’? What’s the difference between a believer and a deceiver?
Perhaps we’ve never bothered to ask ourselves that, since we good, pious
Christians are in a completely different league than demons. But, there’s much
we can learn. Let’s take a closer look at the intention of the Holy Spirit, and
as we do, think of your life.

Part 1

The most obvious place to start is by
asking yourself if you’re willing to confess Christ. That’s really what we’re
dealing with right, confession? Well, the answer’s simple right? We’re all
willing to confess Christ, what kind of Christian would say “no” to that
question? We talked about this last weekend too, as we considered that familiar
text where Jesus says, “He who is not willing to confess Me before men,
neither will I confess before My Father in heaven (Matthew 10:32).” The
examination of our lives in that point is pretty cut and dry. We’re here in
church. We just made a public confession. Our actions show that we are
Christians. We take the name of Christ. The answer’s simple; yes, we confess
Christ.

Oh, but then we start to think of how
God describes the Christian confession in the Bible. He talks about the
presence of hypocrites, people who say the right thing but don’t actually
believe it. No hypocrite is going to be honest about the truth, that’s what
make them a hypocrite. How do you know that you haven’t stumbled into
hypocrisy? Furthermore, how do you know that your confession is the variety
that is deeper and more meaningful than the demons’? They, too, made confession
but it was not because they trusted or believed in Jesus. They were simply
confronted by His power in a way that they literally could not deny it.

Now, I can’t answer these kinds of
questions for you. Only you can search your heart. All I can do is provoke a
thought which reveals or leads you to God’s truth. If you’re confused by
contemplating the quality and substance of your faith, that’s not necessarily a
bad thing. While I don’t want to leave you in doubt, nor would I be doing my
job if I did, I do want to shake off the rust and rubbish that can build up
around your faith. If you struggle with these questions, it shows you have a
proper amount of humility and respect for God. If they are easy to answer or if
you never consider the possibility that they could apply to you, then you might
be too careless in your faith.

Part 2

God also knows your struggles and the
difficulty of these questions. That’s why He also has more to say about it and
that’s why we dig deeper. When you ask yourself if you’re willing to confess
Christ you can test your answer by moving to the next thought, Do you submit to
His Word and will?

It’s at the point of submission or
obedience that we break paths with the demons. It is obedience that shows the
difference between our confession and theirs. Now, that may not seem to be the
case, after all, the demons obeyed didn’t they? They came out of the people
they were in. True enough, but the key difference is in the nature
of their obedience and ours. The demons obey because they are forced to by the
power of God. All people will experience that on Judgment Day too, as Paul
wrote.

But, God gives us obedience through
another means today. We obey through the Gospel. We submit, not out of force,
but out of joy; knowing we are fully protected and cared for by God and the
best path is always through His Word. Listen to Paul’s description of this
obedience, “For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that
if One died for all, then all died; 15 and He died for all, that those who live
should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose
again (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).” The Psalmist also declared the same when he
said, “How sweet are Your words to my taste, Sweeter than honey to my mouth!
Through Your precepts I get understanding; Therefore I hate every false way
(Psalm 119:103-104).”

Submission and obedience to God is
always connected to His Word because it is through that Word we know the truth
and we know salvation. God has given us His Word directly, and given it through
many individuals spanning many generations and cultures. It does not rely on human
authority and therefore we have a great reason to trust it; even though it is
so often spurned and maligned in our culture.

This text comes on the heels of Jesus’
synagogue proclamation in Nazareth, where He quoted Isaiah 61 and said it was fulfilled;
leading the people to try to kill Him. Jesus then moves down to Capernaum in
our text and continues to preach the same message and perform miracles. The
people of Nazareth, and many from Capernaum, refused to submit to Christ and to
obey Him. They rejected the message He proclaimed.

When examining your faith, you would do
well to consider the same thing. What is your relationship to the Word of God,
because that will help answer what the nature of your obedience is? Do you
confess as the Psalmist wrote so simply, “The entirety of Your word is
truth, and every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever (Psalm
119:160).”? Is God’s Word true when it says that He created the world in 6
days, each one described in detail as the “evening and morning”? Is the
judgment of God that those who do not believe in Jesus will be condemned a
righteous one? Did God really mean it when He said that with only food and
clothing we could be content? Is the Scripture correct when it tells us that
pure and undefiled religion is to visit orphans and widows?

Each of those things come from God’s
Word, but do you confess them? Do you obey and submit to those principles in
your life? Remember that the nature of your obedience is one defining
separation between your faith and the demons’ faith.

Part 3

Thinking only of what I confess and how
well I obey the Lord doesn’t leave the greatest feeling in my heart. If you
feel that same way, consider our last question, What kind of Gospel do you
support? Again, this may seem like a no-brainer for the average Christian. But,
let me explain where I’m coming from. Today, what people mean by the term
Gospel ultimately goes back to that thing from which they need to be saved. At
its most basic definition, the word Gospel means “Good News.” Well, that begs
the question, what is good news to you? That may be lots of different things.
But think of it from the beginning. What is the greatest evil? What is the most
serious problem from which you need relief?

For some it’s stress of their financial
lives, so the Gospel is money and a good job. For others life’s greatest evil
is being restricted in their personal liberties so the Gospel becomes a matter
of civil rights. Still some believe that the physical earth is all that there
is so the Gospel becomes a matter of environmental responsibility. None us
think that any of these matters are insignificant. We want to be responsible
with our finances, we want to be good and fair to all people, and we want to be
good caretakers of the earth which God has given us. But, for us who live by
faith in Christ, it’s comical to think of these things as the Gospel.
But what do we show priority to in our lives? Do we spend as much time
confessing about Jesus as Savior from sin as we do about temporal and social
causes? Are we more obedient to the God who created and redeemed us or to the
popular opinions of our time?

The philosophies of different Gospels are
not a recent thing either. Ever since the beginning of the church, Christians
have had to deal with other belief systems trying to uproot the central
doctrine of faith in Jesus. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, For if he who
comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a
different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you
have not accepted-- you may well put up with it (2 Corinthians 4:11)! And
later to the Galatians, I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him
who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, 7 which is not another;
but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8
But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than
what we have preached to you, let him be accursed (Galatians 2:6-8).

If God put you to the test, what kind of
Gospel would your life show to be supporting? Is it the life-saving message of
Jesus as Savior, which comes from, defends, and obeys the Word of truth, or
would He see your time, talents, and confession placed in other areas? As you consider
what kind of Gospel you support, remember what kind of Gospel Jesus supported.
Our text says it all.

The Gospel was the very reason why He
preached and what He preached. Our text doesn’t shy away from the honest truth.
It reads that Jesus said, “I must preach the kingdom of God…” Literally,
He was saying, I must evangelize, or “Gospel” as a verb, to the world. Jesus
spent time healing and caring for people, but this was not His Gospel. His was
to preach repentance and forgiveness of sins in His name, as the Son of God.

Jesus’ Gospel was also the basis of the
kingdom of God. The only path to heaven is through the Gospel.

Jesus’ Gospel was “necessary” to preach.
This was not an optional thing for Jesus, rather the Gospel was the express
reason why He came to earth. And that’s why it’s not optional for us. He would
not be Jesus without the Gospel and we are not Christians without the same.

We began by asking, how does your faith
compare to that of the demons? They confessed Jesus as the Son of God and they
obeyed Him but not from the Gospel. It’s the power of the Gospel that makes the
difference between the believer and the deceiver. Many other details may seem
similar, but the end result is astoundingly different. And that’s because of
what Jesus has done for you through the Gospel. When your confession doesn’t
measure up to bearing His name, He forgives you. When you refuse to submit and
fail to obey, He promises to restore you through repentance and faith. Be not
ashamed of this Gospel, for as you know, it is the “power of God unto
salvation, for everyone who believes.” There you have it, the power of
salvation. The true Gospel of Christ is that which saves us from eternal
damnation, a fate we all deserve. It’s not about things of this world, or the
word of mortal men. It’s about taking our greatest problem away, rescue from
sin and condemnation. This we confess and believe, because the love of Christ
compels us. Amen.

The peace of God which surpasses all
understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Pastor Mark Tiefel

Pastor Mark S. Tiefel graduated from Immanuel Lutheran College and Seminary in Eau Claire, WI, in May of 2012. He previously served Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church. He was installed at Redemption on April 12, 2015.